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Renato Guttuso, The Battle of Ponte dell’Ammariglio (1955) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Mimmo Rotella, The Last King of Kings (1961) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Giulio Turcato, Political Rally (1950) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alberto Burri, Sack and Gold (1953) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Leoncillo, On the Edge of Night II (1960) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Emilio Vedova, Clash of Situations ’59-II-1 (1950) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept, New York 10 (1962) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alberto Burri, Black Red Wood (1960) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Salvatore Scarpitta, Composition (Extramural no. 5) (1958) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alberto Viani, The Shepherd of Being (1963) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Piero Manzoni, Achrome (1961) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Pietro Consagra, White Transparent Iron II (1966) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Piero Manzoni, Artist’s Shit no68 (1961) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Fausto Melotti, Christmas Tube (1965) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Fausto Melotti, Bas-Relief Lances (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Fausto Melotti, Ellipse (1964) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Jannis Kounellis, Garage Shutter of the Galleria L’Attico, via C. Beccaria in Rome, 1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Domenico Gnoli, Red Dress Collar (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Domenico Gnoli, Shoulder (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Domenico Gnoli, Striped Trousers (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Domenico Gnoli, White Bed (1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Mario Ceroli, Burri (1966) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Tano Festa, Ballet Sequence (1965) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Casare Tacchi, Gold Woman (1965) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Giosetta Fiorini, The English Model (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Renato Mambor, Grey Men (1962) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Sergio Lombardo, Kennedy (1963) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Franco Angeli, Protest March (1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Giulio Paolini, Averroes (1867) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Mario Schifano, On the Fair Solution for Society’s Inconsistencies (1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Mario Merz, Untitled (1967) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Franco Angeli, 25 July (1963) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Franco Angeli, Stars (1961) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Mario Schifano, You Need a Point of View (Franco Angeli, Tano Festa) (1965) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Luciano Fabro, Furry Italy (1969) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Luciano Fabro, Italy (1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alighiero Boetti, Untitled (1966) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alghiero Boetti, Camouflage (1967) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Jannis Kounellis, Untitled (1967) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alberto Biasi, Echo (1964-74) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Alighiero Boetti, Map (1971-72) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Pier Paolo Calzolari, Untitled (1968) | Photo by Andrea Paoletti
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Photo by Andrea Paoletti
Fifty years after the protests of 1968—a pivotal year for social reform and revolution around the world—Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi is inaugurating Dawn of a Nation: From Guttuso to Fontana and Schifano, an exhibition covering the second post-war period to 1968 in Italy. The show opens to the public on March 16, 2018.
Through more than 70 works from prominent Italian artists, Dawn of a Nation highlights the development of a still-nebulous sense of nationhood in Italy over a 20-year period of political and artistic change, from the Fascism years through the economic uptick and social unrest of the late 1960s. Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Merz, and Piero Manzoni are among the artists featured.
Curator Luca Massimo Barbero emphasizes that this era of Italian art was inextricably linked to the young country’s development and its resulting tensions. This was, Barbero says, a “period in art that sucked its lifeblood from politics, current events and social change.” In the exhibition, visitors get a sense of the varied and occasionally conflicting styles seen over the course of just two decades, through works in a range of media.
Renato Guttuso (Bagheria 1911–Rome 1987), La battaglia di Ponte dell’Ammiraglio (The Battle of Ponte dell’Ammiraglio), 1955, oil on canvas, 300 x 500 cm, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, inv. pr. 892. Courtesy of the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Renato Guttuso, by SIAE 2018.
Dawn of a Nation opens with a video installation placed in dialogue with Renato Guttuso’s painting The Battle of Ponte dell’Ammiraglio (1951-5), a key example of realism and a sort of snapshot of the conflict-ridden decade in which it was produced. Guttuso was continually up against the styles of the new avant-garde, as seen in the examples of Giulio Turcato’s abstracted work Political Rally (1950), the main image used in promotion for the exhibition, and in the defaced Mussolini in Mimmo Rotella’s The Last King of Kings (1961).
Emilio Vedova (Venice 1919–2006), Scontro di situazioni ’59-II-1(Clash of situations ’59-II-1), 1959, tempera, charcoal and sand on canvas, 275 x 444 cm, Venice, Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova. Photo Jacob Littkemann, Berlin © Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova.
The exhibition continues through the Informal Art period, which bore the influence of existentialist philosophy (as seen in Emilio Vedova’s Clash of Situations ’59-II-1, 1959). Experimentation with materials—seen in the work of Alberto Burri—is also a theme, as is the influence of Pop Art and the growth of monochrome painting. Rounding out the show is an exploration of the Arte Povera movement and the Italian exponents of Conceptual Art.
Dawn of a Nation
March 16-July 22, 2018
Palazzo Strozzi, piazza Strozzi, Florence
Admission 12 euro (full), 9.50 euro (reduced), 4 euro (schools)
www.palazzostrozzi.org